February 12th, 2008

As mention in my previous post, I was in the market for new tyres. My stock Goodyear RCT have bald at ~60k km of usage. My initial intention was to get either Mechellin Precada 2 or Continental Contact 2, of which the later was quoted to me to be about RM168, which is quite affordable. I went back to the hometown during the festive holiday and did not have the chance to get the tyres here in Penang. I had to get it in a rush in Taiping. The Continental shop that I went to did not have Contact 2 and his Preceda was RM2xx, way over what I was willing to pay for a tyre. Instead, he was selling the Korean Hankook hard. I have never heard of this brand before and was rather sceptical. Inspecting the tyre more, I find that the tyre was a little lighter than Contact 1 after comparing side by side and was very soft. Much softer than the Contact 1 and also the Goodyear RCT. The guy says this accounts for the noise reduction. He says this tyre could last about 40k km, which much less than the current Goodyear RCT. I guess there is a little price to pay for the noise reduction of soft tyres. I was sold as I did not have the time to go shopping around in Taiping. After installation, I find that the tyres were indeed quiter than Goodyear RCT. The aircondition blower in the car now sound more prominent, compared to the tyre sound previously..